I am because you are…

My friends at the Langham Partnership have a great project to help the church recover Christlikeness as a priority in Christian living and leadership. I was asked to talk about someone who had modelled Christlikeness to me and the following video tells a bit of the story of Nigel Lee’s influence on my life. There are so many others that have helped shape my life it reminded me of the South African idea of Ubuntu “I am because of you are…”

So here’s a little exercise that may be of helpful – make a list of the people that have been key to your spiritual development.

June Kandiah - my mum who taught me to prayOlive Baxter – my first sunday school teacher – who offered kindness and grace to a random Asian walk in to her sunday school classJoy Weston – a choir leader who made space for a kid with a broken voice in our church choirSteven Whittington – a classmate at my rough comprehensive school who became a Christian and then fearlessly shared his faith with me and the whole classDaryl Carrott – a schools worker who met with me once a week when I was 15 to 18 and passed on a passion for evangelism.Rod Powell a man that shared his passion for global mission with me through numerous summer projects and is the reason I ended up in AlbaniaPhil Wall a friend who taught me the centrality of justice
Kim Hubbard a church pastor in Leamington Spa who passed on a passion for caring for people and teaching scripture faithfully.John Marsh a retired surgeon who met me weekly and faithfully wrote to my wife and I when we were in AlbaniaToni Gogu an Albanian lawyer who passed on a passion for serving God in the market place.Altin Hysi an Albanian church pastor with a creative vision and generous heartLesslie Newbigin the finest missiologist of his generation who mentored me through his writingAndrew Kirk who encouraged me to explore academic theologyAndrew Walker who schooled me in the art of theological conversationMiriam Kandiah who models patient compassion and who gave me a heart for orphans

I thank God for these and many other christlike mentors in my life – I pray I may be an influence for good in others lives as these people have been to me

Would love to hear your stories about who modelled Christlikeness to you.

2 thoughts on “I am because you are…”

I saw the title and thought ‘Nigel Lee’ before I’d read anything you wrote. I guess there are many others who feel the same. And I know Rod Powell is on Simon’s list as well as mine. And if you hadn’t met Simon at a bus stop in Leamington and, with Miriam, taught us both how to fearlessly question every detail of what the Bible passage said, we wouldn’t be spending our lives still doing that and teaching others to do the same. Thank you. Also Barry Killick, who pastored us and our church through a year-long hoax culminating in a fake healing. Jackie Mann, who helped me when I nearly lost my faith when I thought I had to believe in limited atonement. Nigel Pollock, for being real in how he taught us applied biblical truth. Bob Ekblad, via his writing, for teaching me how to meet God in the Bible with people who can’t read or concentrate.